Top 50 Yojijukugo for N2: Readings, Meanings, Examples
Yojijukugo are four-character idioms that compress a whole image or moral into four kanji. They are everywhere in formal Japanese: editorials, speeches, ceremonial greetings, and exam reading.1 This sortable reference lists fifty common idioms an N2 reading-track learner is likely to meet. Each entry gives the reading, meaning, an English equivalent, a real cited example, and a one-line origin.
How to use this list
This page is the reference companion to the hub article Yojijukugo: Reading and Using Four-Character Idioms. That hub explains how to study these compounds; this page is the list you study from. For the concepts behind the list, see Yojijukugo (四字熟語): The Japanese Four-Character Idioms Explained. It covers what yojijukugo are, the broad-versus-narrow definition, origin types, and internal AB+CD patterns.
The fifty idioms are grouped by theme, not alphabetically or by origin. Related idioms reinforce each other when you meet them together. This puts the hub's "batch by theme, not alphabetically" study advice into practice. The origin sits in its own column, so you can still mentally regroup the list by classical Chinese, Buddhist, or Japan-coined source when that helps.
Each theme has its own sub-table. The six themes are effort and resolve, emotion and human nature, conflict and reversal, time and transience, wisdom and conduct, and auspicious set phrases.
Reading the columns
The columns are the same in every sub-table.
- 四字熟語 is the headword in kanji.
- Reading gives the full kana and the Modified-Hepburn romaji, so the idiom and its example sentence stay free of furigana clutter.
- Meaning gives the dictionary sense, with the literal surface image noted in quotation marks where it differs sharply from what the idiom actually conveys.
- English equivalent is the nearest English idiom or proverb. It is an editorial translation aid, not a translation of the dictionary line, and some entries have no clean English match.
- Example gives one quoted Japanese sentence with its citation. Every example comes from a real source (a Tatoeba sentence or a named dictionary 例文, example sentence); none is invented. Rows with no usable sourced sentence show "n/a".
- Origin is a one-line category: classical Chinese 故事 (story-based expression), Buddhist, 和製 (Japan-coined), general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word), or a Western-proverb calque.
The 50 idioms
Effort, perseverance, and resolve
| 四字熟語 | Reading | Meaning | English equivalent | Example | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 一生懸命 | いっしょうけんめい / isshōkenmei | Throwing oneself into something with all one's might.2 | "with all one's might / for dear life" | 彼は一生懸命勉強した。3 | 和製 / general 漢語 (from 一所懸命, holding one fief with one's life) |
| 試行錯誤 | しこうさくご / shikō sakugo | Repeated trial and error toward a solution.4 | "trial and error" | 試行錯誤は進歩に不可欠だ。5 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word; rendering of trial and error) |
| 臨機応変 | りんきおうへん / rinki ōhen | Taking the measure that fits each situation.6 | "play it by ear / adapt to circumstances" | 臨機応変にやろうよ。7 | classical Chinese 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 七転八起 | しちてんはっき / shichiten hakki | Never giving up however often you fail. Literally "fall seven times, rise eight."8 | "fall down seven times, get up eight" | 七転び八起き。9 | general 漢語 / proverb |
| 不言実行 | ふげんじっこう / fugen jikkō | Doing what must be done silently, without complaint or theorizing.10 | "actions speak louder than words" | 不言実行が俺のやり方。11 | 和製 (Meiji counter-coinage to 有言実行) |
| 用意周到 | よういしゅうとう / yōi shūtō | Preparation that overlooks nothing.12 | "thoroughly prepared / leaving nothing to chance" | 用意周到な計画13 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 起死回生 | きしかいせい / kishi kaisei | Bringing something near ruin or hopeless back to life.14 | "a miraculous turnaround" | 起死回生の霊薬15 | classical Chinese (太平広記) |
| 大器晩成 | たいきばんせい / taiki bansei | Great talents mature slowly. Literally "a great vessel is completed late."16 | "a late bloomer" | 彼は大器晩成だ。17 | classical Chinese (老子, ch. 41) |
| 一進一退 | いっしんいったい / isshin ittai | Advancing and retreating; a situation that improves and worsens by turns.18 | "back and forth / touch and go" | 戦いは一進一退であった19 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
Emotion, character, and human nature
| 四字熟語 | Reading | Meaning | English equivalent | Example | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 喜怒哀楽 | きどあいらく / kido airaku | Joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure; the full range of human emotion.20 | "the gamut of human emotion" | 喜怒哀楽を見せるな。21 | classical Chinese 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word; 中庸) |
| 一喜一憂 | いっきいちゆう / ikki ichiyū | Alternating joy and anxiety as circumstances shift.22 | "swing between hope and fear" | 彼は一喜一憂した。23 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 半信半疑 | はんしんはんぎ / hanshin hangi | Unable to decide between belief and doubt.24 | "half in doubt / taking it with a grain of salt" | 彼の言うことには半信半疑だ。25 | classical Chinese 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 自業自得 | じごうじとく / jigō jitoku | Reaping the consequences of your own deeds, usually bad ones.26 | "you reap what you sow / serves you right" | 自業自得だよ。27 | Buddhist (正法念処経 / 往生要集) |
| 自画自賛 | じがじさん / jiga jisan | Praising one's own work or deeds.28 | "blow one's own trumpet" | 自分の作品を自画自賛してどうするの。29 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word; inscribing one's own praise-verse on one's own painting) |
| 八方美人 | はっぽうびじん / happō bijin | Someone agreeable to everyone, usually said with disapproval.30 | "a people-pleaser" (often negative in Japanese) | 八方美人に友はなし。31 | 和製 (Japan-coined) / general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 十人十色 | じゅうにんといろ / jūnin toiro | Tastes and views differ from person to person.32 | "to each their own" | 十人十色。33 | 和製 (Japan-coined) / general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 唯我独尊 | ゆいがどくそん / yuiga dokuson | Conceited self-importance.34 | "holier-than-thou / self-important" | 本人は唯我独尊を決め込んでいるようだけども、周りから見れば単なるわがままだよね。35 | Buddhist (天上天下唯我独尊; the modern sense has drifted into a pejorative) |
| 我田引水 | がでんいんすい / gaden insui | Twisting things to one's own advantage. Literally "drawing water to one's own field."36 | "self-serving / grist to one's own mill" | 我田引水と誤解されるような言動は慎むべきである37 | 和製 |
| 因果応報 | いんがおうほう / inga ōhō | Good and bad deeds bring corresponding results.38 | "what goes around comes around / karma" | 口を開けば人の悪口ばかり言うので誰からも敬遠されているのだ、因果応報だ39 | Buddhist (因果 + 応報) |
Conflict, danger, and reversal
| 四字熟語 | Reading | Meaning | English equivalent | Example | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 四面楚歌 | しめんそか / shimen soka | Surrounded by enemies, isolated and unaided. Literally "Chu songs on all four sides."40 | "surrounded on all sides / beleaguered with no allies" | n/a | classical Chinese 故事 (史記, 項羽本紀) |
| 弱肉強食 | じゃくにくきょうしょく / jakuniku kyōshoku | The strong prey on the weak. Literally "the weak are meat, the strong eat."41 | "the law of the jungle / survival of the fittest" | 弱肉強食。42 | classical Chinese (韓愈, 送浮屠文暢師序) |
| 危機一髪 | ききいっぱつ / kiki ippatsu | A hair's-breadth brush with disaster.43 | "a close shave / by a hair's breadth" | 危機一髪だった。44 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 急転直下 | きゅうてんちょっか / kyūten chokka | A situation turns abruptly and races to a conclusion.45 | "take a sudden turn / come to a head abruptly" | 事件は急転直下解決した46 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 単刀直入 | たんとうちょくにゅう / tantō chokunyū | Getting straight to the point. Literally "single sword, straight in."47 | "straight to the point / point-blank" | 単刀直入に聞いてみた。48 | classical Chinese (景徳伝灯録) |
| 一網打尽 | いちもうだじん / ichimō dajin | Catching the whole gang in one sweep.49 | "round up in one swoop / in one fell swoop" | 警察は巨大な麻薬団を一網打尽にした50 | classical Chinese (宋史, 范純仁伝) |
| 言語道断 | ごんごどうだん / gongo dōdan | Outrageous beyond words. Literally "the path of words is cut off."51 | "outrageous / utterly inexcusable" | 保身のため事実を隠蔽するなど言語道断である52 | Buddhist (originally positive; drifted to negative) |
Time, change, and transience
| 四字熟語 | Reading | Meaning | English equivalent | Example | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 一期一会 | いちごいちえ / ichigo ichie | Treating every gathering as a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.53 | "once in a lifetime / treasure every encounter" | n/a | 和製 (tea ceremony; Sen no Rikyū via 山上宗二記) |
| 一日千秋 | いちじつせんしゅう / ichijitsu senshū | A day feels like a thousand years; longing intensely.54 | "every minute feels like an age" | あなたのお帰りを一日千秋の思いでお待ちしています。55 | classical Chinese (詩経) |
| 諸行無常 | しょぎょうむじょう / shogyō mujō | All things change and pass; nothing is permanent.56 | "all things must pass / nothing lasts forever" | 祇園精舎の鐘の声、諸行無常の響きあり。57 | Buddhist (one of the 三法印) |
| 千変万化 | せんぺんばんか / senpen banka | Changing in countless ways.58 | "ever-changing / protean" | 車窓から千変万化の景色を楽しんだ59 | classical Chinese 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word; 列子) |
| 一刻千金 | いっこくせんきん / ikkoku senkin | A brief, precious moment is worth a fortune.60 | "every moment is precious / time is gold" | n/a | classical Chinese (蘇軾, 春夜) |
| 大同小異 | だいどうしょうい / daidō shōi | Much the same, with only trivial differences.61 | "much of a muchness / six of one and half a dozen of the other" | この二つは大同小異だ。62 | classical Chinese (荘子, 天下篇) |
| 千差万別 | せんさばんべつ / sensa banbetsu | Infinitely varied.63 | "all manner of / infinitely varied" | 人の性質は千差万別だ64 | Buddhist / Chan (景徳伝灯録) |
| 一朝一夕 | いっちょういっせき / itchō isseki | A very short span of time; almost always negative, "not in a day."65 | "overnight / in a day" | 英語というのは一朝一夕にマスターできるものではない。66 | classical Chinese 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word; 易経) |
Wisdom, learning, and conduct
| 四字熟語 | Reading | Meaning | English equivalent | Example | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 温故知新 | おんこちしん / onko chishin | Studying the past to gain new understanding.67 | "learning from the past" | 温故知新というからねえ。歴史の勉強は大切だよ。68 | classical Chinese (論語, 為政) |
| 切磋琢磨 | せっさたくま / sessa takuma | Relentless self-improvement; friends spurring each other on.69 | "spur one another on / hone one's skills through friendly rivalry" | 君の実力なら楽勝だとは思うが、それに驕らず、まずはクラスのみんなと切磋琢磨していって欲しい。70 | classical Chinese (詩経, 衛風・淇奧) |
| 言行一致 | げんこういっち / genkō itchi | One's words and actions match.71 | "practice what you preach / true to one's word" | 彼は言行一致の人だ。72 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 起承転結 | きしょうてんけつ / kishō tenketsu | The four-part structure of a composition: introduce, develop, turn, conclude.73 | "narrative structure / beginning-middle-twist-end" | n/a | classical Chinese (絶句 composition method) |
| 適材適所 | てきざいてきしょ / tekizai tekisho | Putting the right person in the right role.74 | "the right person for the right job" | 彼こそ適材適所という者だ。75 | 和製 (from carpentry: matching each timber to its use) |
| 馬耳東風 | ばじとうふう / baji tōfū | Heeding others' advice not at all. Literally "east wind past a horse's ear."76 | "in one ear and out the other / water off a duck's back" | あの男には何を言っても馬耳東風だ77 | classical Chinese (李白, 答王十二寒夜独酌有懐) |
| 五十歩百歩 | ごじっぽひゃっぽ / gojippo hyappo | A trivial difference; essentially the same.78 | "the pot calling the kettle black / six of one, half a dozen of the other" | 五十歩百歩。79 | classical Chinese (孟子, 梁恵王上) |
| 朝三暮四 | ちょうさんぼし / chōsan boshi | Being fooled by surface differences that net to the same thing; or deceiving with clever words.80 | "robbing Peter to pay Paul / a distinction without a difference" | n/a | classical Chinese (列子 / 荘子, 斉物論) |
| 油断大敵 | ゆだんたいてき / yudan taiteki | A warning that carelessness is your worst enemy.81 | "don't let your guard down" | 油断大敵。82 | 和製 (Japan-coined) / proverb-grade 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
Auspicious and ceremonial set phrases
| 四字熟語 | Reading | Meaning | English equivalent | Example | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 一心同体 | いっしんどうたい / isshin dōtai | Two or more people acting as one in heart and body.83 | "of one mind / two bodies, one soul" | 夫婦は一心同体である。84 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word; common in wedding and team 座右の銘, personal mottos) |
| 一陽来復 | いちようらいふく / ichiyō raifuku | After a run of bad fortune, things finally turn for the better; also the return of spring.85 | "the turn of the tide / better days ahead" | 心身の調子がすぐれず長期休養していたが、一陽来復、また元気に出社できるようになった。86 | classical Chinese (易経) |
| 風林火山 | ふうりんかざん / fūrin kazan | Fast as wind, quiet as forest, fierce as fire, immovable as mountain.87 | "swift as wind, silent as a forest, fierce as fire, firm as a mountain" | 彼の戦術は、まさに風林火山だと言えるだろう。88 | classical Chinese (孫子, 軍争篇; Takeda Shingen's banner) |
| 順風満帆 | じゅんぷうまんぱん / junpū manpan | Everything proceeding smoothly. Literally "a fair wind and full sails."89 | "smooth sailing / plain sailing" | 会社の経営があまりにも順風満帆で、かえって恐いぐらいだ。90 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 老若男女 | ろうにゃくなんにょ / rōnyaku nannyo | People of every age and both sexes.91 | "men and women of all ages / young and old alike" | その飄々とした人柄が老若男女に慕われている。92 | general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
| 一石二鳥 | いっせきにちょう / isseki nichō | One action, two gains.93 | "kill two birds with one stone" (a near-exact match) | 一石二鳥。94 | Western-proverb calque (from the English proverb) |
| 一致団結 | いっちだんけつ / itchi danketsu | Many people uniting for a single purpose.95 | "pull together / unite as one" | 我々が手に手を取って一致団結すれば、きっとこの不況の時代も乗り切れるだろう。96 | 和製 (Japan-coined) / general 漢語 (Sino-Japanese word) |
Five of the fifty rows show "n/a" in the Example column because no verbatim sentence containing the headword could be sourced from Tatoeba or a named dictionary 例文 (example sentence). The list quotes only real, citable sentences, so an unsourced row is left blank rather than filled with an invented example. A few other rows give a short verbatim 用例 (usage example) phrase rather than a full sentence. The 七転八起 row uses the kun-reading proverb form 七転び八起き, which is spelled differently from the four-character headword.9
How these were chosen
Three things anchor this list. First, every entry appears in 新明解四字熟語辞典 or デジタル大辞泉, which fixes the standard reading, meaning, and origin. Second, the 漢検 (Kanji Aptitude Test) 準2級/2級 four-character-idiom band functions as the de facto adult canon for common yojijukugo.1 Third, the idioms are frequent in formal-register usage, recurring across editorials, speeches, and exam material.
There is no official JLPT yojijukugo list; the test publishes no four-character-idiom inventory.97 The same caveat applies to the JLPT vocabulary lists generally, where no official roster has been published since 2010. The "N2" label here is an editorial judgment about reading comfort, not an official mapping. It mirrors the framing used in the companion hub.
Overlap with other curated top-50 lists is expected and acceptable. This list earns its place through the theme grouping, English equivalents, and cited examples, not by swapping in rarer idioms to look different.
Good to know
English equivalents are approximations, not translations
The English-equivalent column gives the nearest idiom, but that idiom may carry a different register or connotation. 八方美人 reads like a compliment ("a beauty from all eight directions") but is usually pejorative in Japanese, used with a note of criticism.30 唯我独尊's everyday "conceited" sense is itself a pejorative drift from its dignified Buddhist origin.34 A few entries, such as 一期一会 and 諸行無常, have no clean English match at all.
Look-alike forms can have drifted in meaning
A four-character form can end up far from where it started. 言語道断 began as a positive Buddhist term, a truth too profound for words, and drifted to today's negative "outrageous."51 For a fuller treatment of how a Japanese form and its identical-kanji Chinese counterpart can diverge, see Yojijukugo (四字熟語): The Japanese Four-Character Idioms Explained.
危機一髪, not 危機一発
The standard form uses 髪, "hair," carrying the hair's-breadth image; 一発, "one shot," is a common homophone miswriting. Dictionaries list the idiom under 危機一髪.43 The correct written form is the one with 髪.
危機一髪のところで助かった。43
"I was saved at the last possible moment."
順風満帆 is じゅんぷうまんぱん, not まんぽ
満帆 reads まんぱん in this idiom. An NHK survey in 1980 found that about thirty percent of speakers misread it as まんぽ. まんぱん is the standard reading.98 The compound was recorded in the third edition of 広辞苑 in 1983.98
Meet the compound inside a sentence, not as a bare four-kanji string
A compound seen inside a real sentence, such as 危機一髪だった or 自業自得だよ, is easier to retain than the isolated four-kanji headword. That is why every row includes an example. It is also why the hub's spaced-repetition card method builds cards around a sentence rather than a bare gloss, following the same sentence-mining habit used across the vocabulary track.
See also
- Yojijukugo: Reading and Using Four-Character Idioms
- Yojijukugo (四字熟語): The Japanese Four-Character Idioms Explained
- Kotowaza: Japanese Proverbs
- Japanese Body-Part Idioms: 手, 目, 口, 心 Expressions
- Animal Idioms: 馬, 犬, 猫, 虎
- Sentence Mining: Building Your Own Japanese Anki Deck From What You Read
- Jukugo (熟語): How Kanji Combine to Form Japanese Words
- JLPT N2 Vocabulary List: ~1,750 New Words Beyond N3, by Register